Princess Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj

Italian noblewoman who strove to preserve her vast inheritance in Rome and Genoa for the enjoyment of the public

PRINCESS ORIETTA POGSON DORIA PAMPHILJ, who has died aged 78, was the head of one of Italy's greatest noble families.

The only child of Prince Filippo Doria Pamphilj, she was descended from the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria who laid the foundations for the family fortune in the 16th century. After the death of her father in 1958, the Princess inherited a clutch of titles - four princedoms, two dukedoms and eight marquisates - and the immense Doria estates, including palaces in Rome and Genoa, a Norman castle in Apulia, a 13th-century abbey near Portofino, and the church of St Agnese in the Piazza Navona, Rome.

She and her family lived in the baroque Palazzo Doria Pamphilij, on the Corso. It has more than 1,000 rooms and is one of the three largest palaces in Rome - almost two-thirds the size of St Peter's, (which within its ground plan could accommodate a building the size of the Coliseum.) The palace's gallery houses a magnificent collection of paintings, among them works by Titian, Caravaggio and Raphael, as well as Velasquez's magnificent portrait of Pope Innocent X, a Pamphilj predecessor and the man who amassed the nucleus of the present collection.

After her marriage in 1958 to an English naval officer, Frank Pogson, the Princess and her husband ran the family properties together, although crippling death duties forced them to sell another of their residences in Rome -the Piazza Navona Palace - and to transfer to the Italian government the Villa Doria Pamphilij, built for Innocent X in the 17th century and occupying 180 acres of valuable land on the Janiculum Heights in Rome.

Princess Orietta Emily Mary Doria Pamphilj was born on April 22 1922. Her paternal grandmother was a daughter of the Duke of Newcastle; her Doria great-grandfather had also married an English girl, Lady Mary Talbot, whom he met at Queen Victoria's coronation. Her father, Prince Filippo Andrea VI Doria Pamphilj married Gesine Dykes, a Scots nurse who had brought him back to health after he had been injured in a sculling accident while at Cambridge.

Much of Orietta's childhood was dominated by her father's staunch anti-fascism. She was not allowed to attend school because she did not have a fascist card, and on one occasion a crowd stormed the palace after her father refused to fly a flag in support of Mussolini. During the war Prince Doria was sent to a concentration camp and although he was released after the fall of Mussolini in 1943, he had to go into hiding in Trastavere, a tough working-class district of Rome. Orietta, her fair hair dyed black, also hid with her mother to avoid being taken hostage.

Occasionally they met up with the Prince, who was planning with the Resistance to blow up the Villa Doria Pamphilij, because it was occupied by the Waffen SS. Explosives were smuggled in through a network of tunnels he had known from boyhood. Although the Villa was spared, the Germans, when they left, carted away 40 lorry loads of loot and smashed what they could not remove.

After the war the family was reunited in the Palazzo Doria which had survived unharmed. Princess Orietta joined the Catholic Women's League and was sent to Ancona, the Adriatic port which had recently been captured by the Allies. There she met her future husband, then Sub-Lieutenant Frank Pogson. They struck up a friendship and the Princess asked him to call in at her house in Rome during Christmas leave. She gave her address as 304 Via del Corso, but gave no hint as to her background, apart from describing her home as "a big old place".

However, it was 14 years before the two were married, due, in part, to the fact the Princess was caring for her father, who never fully recovered from his wartime experiences. Frank Pogson and Princess Doria Pamphilij were married at the Brompton Oratory in 1958, shortly after Prince Doria's death. In accordance with her father's wishes, Pogson added Doria Pamphilj to his surname, so that the name should not die out.

Piqued members of Roman society suggested - quite wrongly - that the Princess's father had not approved of the marriage - and there was further eyebrow raising when, in the early 1960s, the couple adopted two English children. In fact, a precedent had been set 400 years before when a Doria ancestor had also adopted a son and a daughter.

Princess Doria and her husband dedicated their lives to the upkeep and restoration of the family estates. In 1996, after a huge refurbishment programme, they opened to the public the Palazzo de Principe in Genoa. A number of items of furniture from that palace had been moved, many years before, to the Princess's private apartments in Rome but she returned them to their rightful home. However, the family still enjoyed teasing her and would suggest, "Isn't that Genoese?" about some particularly attractive item in her apartments.

After the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Princess and her husband, both devout Catholics, worked to promote better relations between faiths. During her visit to Rome last month the Queen attended the Anglican centre, which is housed in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj.

Frank Pogson Doria Pamphilj died in 1998. The Princess is survived by her son and daughter - and by her son-in-law, whom she regarded as a second son.